Conclusion:
I turned to George and said could you tell where or how good I hit and he said simply “it looked good to me” he was looking with his bare eye. He also said that is a good Buffalo with emphasis on “good.” We didn’t wait twenty or thirty minutes but went straight after it and started tracking. As soon as it took off and left the road it was in pretty thick bush. Probably thirty yards visibility. I never expected a charge at any time following it up but definitely didn’t rule one out either. I had confidence in my PH and myself and and made D*#N sure my scope was down to 3x, I had a live round in the chamber and could get the safety off quickly, which btw, you slid BACK towards the butt of the rifle instead of forward like on most bolt actions I had seen or used.
We tracked the bull for maybe 200 yards in pretty thick cover and jumped it and it took off with no chance for a follow up. When we got to where we jumped it, there were three good puddles of blood including lung blood, but they weren’t the size of a garbage can lid like I hoped there would be. At that point the guide said “we will find your buffalo.” It then moved into more open terrain and after another quarter or half mile we jumped it again and I got a quick shot off from one knee. It felt pretty good to me but no one heard the bullet impact, and it kept going. Around this time the guide called on the radio and told the other guides the deal and to try cut the bull off and get another shot in him. Basically this whole time it had been leaving a steady stream of blood (not gushing or spraying out of him but not just dripping).
We tracked on until we hit another road it had crossed and met up with another guide and hunters in our party. We had something to drink and my original guide joined us to cover the rear as we again followed it into thick cover. By now we had tracked it at least 3/4 of a mile and probably a lot more and it had to have lost at least two gallons of blood I thought if not a lot more. I don’t know how many gallons of blood are in a Cape buffalo but it had lost a lot of blood. I was bummed out it hadn’t fell over dead and was nervous we would lose the track and my $10K trophy fee along with it but those trackers are very good. We followed it a ways further and then heard a shot maybe a hundred yards away. A radio call was made and we took off in that direction, came out out on a road and trotted down to a waiting vehicle where the other PH had hit the buffalo again while it was crossing the road. They pointed out the buffalo laying down in the bush fifty or sixty yards and I was told to shoot again. I thought it was dead but what the heck? So I shot and to my surprise it stood back up and turned around facing it’s back trail!! (We were off to the side of it at this point) That SOB isn’t getting away this time I told myself and racked in another round, shot and another and another and it went down for good. I probably missed one or two out of those three but was spent from jogging with that heavy-ass rifle. In hindsight, I think I did hit it that second shot near the spine but unfortunately didn’t have a solid in but just soft points. The first shot in the chest was to the right and I think, came out behind the shoulder, probably just getting one lung and a good artery.
When we walked up on that buffalo and I got a good look at it, I was one happy hunter!!!
44.5 inches and a WHOPPER!!! Probably a good Buffalo for anywhere in Africa.
I just want to thank and give credit to George Potgeiter of Schoongezicht for doing a great job of providing a memorable OIL hunt for me and also a great hunt for all six of us that went.
So there you have it. This is probably the one and only hunt I will ever write about and go into this much detail but I think it was worthwhile and I hope a few people enjoyed it and maybe learned a few things about this type of a hunt. Carry on.
my strike rate by catching them by hand is 70%...then a hell of a fight occurs...they are very focus on only 'one thing' when in rut 
